Purpose

Many customers choose to use credit or debit
cards in our car parks. We require a third party to process these
transactions for us, taking a small fee for every transaction. We
intend to undertake a full procurement for a card payment merchant
services in 2026. In the meantime we are entering into a short term
framework for a maximum of 12 months to continue providing this
service whilst we prepare a procurement process.

Decision

Option 2 has been discounted. A mini
competition was undertaken in the Summer of 2025 indicating very
few providers in the market for this service. We need to ensure
customers are still able to use credit/ debit cards for payments in
the short term. Entering into a temporary framework agreement
enables us to start the procurement process whilst still having a
service in place. We expect to be able to complete this in late
2026.
Option 3 has been discounted as we have an incumbent provider with
no agreement in place. This puts us at risk of uncontrolled
increases in transactions fees or withdrawal of service.

Alternative options considered

Option 1 - Enter into a framework agreement
with our incumbent provider
Option 2 - Begin a full procurement exercise
Option 3 - Do nothing